An Improved Single Antenna Attitude System Based on GPS Signal Strength

Wang, Charles, Walker, Rodney A., & Moody, Miles P.
(2005)
An Improved Single Antenna Attitude System Based on GPS Signal Strength. In
American Institute of aeronautics and Astronautics - Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, San Francisco.

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate a new method for improving the accuracy of single GPS antenna single-axis attitude determination systems based on signal strength measurements. The hypothesis is to determine whether the inclusion of a predictive signal strength model can improve performance over previous implementations that achieved accuracies of approximately 15º rms. A model is developed of the measured three dimensional receiving antenna gain pattern (as fitted to the spacecraft), the distance dependent path loss, the effects of the ionosphere, the GPS satellite transmitting antenna gain, and the variation in GPS satellite transmission power. The performance of this new approach is compared against two other single antenna attitude methods based on flight data from the FedSat microsatellite. The truth for these evaluations is based on the attitude solution of the spacecraft which uses magnetometers and digital sun sensors. The new approach was able to determine the attitude of the spacecraft to an accuracy of 15 rms.

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